Dell says that a large portion of its Mini 9 Netbooks are sold with Ubuntu

Netbooks are very popular today with much of the computer industry's growth coming from the segment. Netbooks typically come with Linux or Windows XP as operating system choices. Return rates for netbooks running Linux are reportedly significantly higher than return rates on XP netbooks, but Dell says that isn’t the case with its offerings.

Jay Pinkert from Dell told Laptop, "A third of our Mini 9 mix is Linux, which is well above the standard attach rate for other systems that offer Linux. We have done a very good job explaining to folks what Linux is."

Dell also attributes its low price on the Linux-based Mini 9 as a reason for the large amount of sales. Dell's John New said, "Our focus has been making sure that before the order is taken is that the customer knows what he is getting."

Laptop figures that another reason for the popularity of the Ubuntu Mini 9 is the slick GUI that Dell has developed for the operating system, which makes using the Windows XP alternative easier for consumers to use. Many also wonder if some users might simply be taking advantage of the lower prices Ubuntu system and then installing their own existing copies of XP onto the machine.

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This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

A more interesting statistic is how many are running Linux THREE MONTHS later?

I bet the majority of those 1/3 have a "recycled version" of Windows installed within 6 weeks. Recycled doesnt necessarily mean pirated... just an existing copy of Windows, perhaps from an old machine, or volume license, or "free beta", is installed onto this device.